Drawing upon archival materials, I describe the history, design, and assessment of literacy tests from early 20th century New York state. Practitioners working with these early standardized writing tests grappled with tensions created by public Nativist sentiment, the legislation of "literacy," and calls to score the tests in…

Composition assessment scholars have exhibited uneasiness with the language of norming grounded in distaste for the psychometric assumption that achievement of consensus in a communal assessment setting is desirable even at the cost of individual pedagogical values. Responding to the problems of a "reliability" defined by homogenous agreement,…

This article discusses three sets of challenges involved in the assessment of writing from a developmental perspective. These challenges include defining a workable theory of development, developing a suitable construct, and overcoming limitations in technocentric approaches to writing assessment. In North America in recent years, a burgeoning…

Rating scales act as the de facto test construct in a writing assessment, although inevitably as a simplification of the construct (North, 2003). However, it is often not reported how rating scales are constructed. Unless the underlying framework of a rating scale takes some account of linguistic theory and research in the definition of…

Establishing the score or the placement as the first priority in a writing assessment leads to more reductive forms of writing assessment. However, if the prompts used in a direct test of writing were generative--that is, if they asked test-takers to analyze their own experiences as writers or learners, for example--the resulting texts would be…

Explores how a portfolio assessment project in the University of Cape Town's Chemistry Department developed (within staff) new understandings of the role of writing as a vehicle for learning, which resulted in a reexamination of the relationship of the written assignments to the existing curriculum. Discusses challenges of designing assessment…

Describes a project in which researchers work with teachers to increase their knowledge of a specific genre of writing and to use the knowledge in response to student work. Finds that few teachers used the feedback response form or scoring rubric provided to them but that teachers used many of the assessment techniques in instructional design and…

Describes the establishment of a hermeneutic circle of portfolio researchers (writing teachers from Alaska to Florida) acting as "outside readers" for each other--six months into the project, the group established an e-mail network called "Portnet." Contemplates the group's experiences during Portnet's first year. (PA)

The authors report on an interpretive case study that investigated how three elementary teachers summatively assessed their own students' written work over a three and one-half month period. Their collaborative assessment sessions reflected their ongoing routines that created productive social spaces that sowed the seeds for transformational adult…

Contends that different ethical issues arise according to how the construct of writing is defined for assessment purposes. Explains that most formal assessments assume a pragmatic, functional definition of second-language writing in which an examinee's text production is judged normatively in respect to conventions. Discusses efforts to develop…

Describes reasons for resisting computer editing tests and suggests possible problems with using only directed student self-placement in open access institutions. Presents a sample student profile to illustrate the interaction and negotiation among writing teachers as they read profiles and reach an agreement about their placement recommendation.…

This article attempts to structure student assessment practices in the classroom. Informed by fourth generation evaluation, it discusses a pedagogy based on a recursive framework of writing, assessment, and reflection activities that move students toward productive praxis. Implemented over three semesters at a land grant university in the U.S.,…

In this article, the authors argue that evaluation courses grounded in assessment theory and situated within a cultural context of actual workplace practices enhances student learning. Giving students the tools that assessors, both formal and informal, use helps them learn to anticipate and generate those tools for writing situations they will…

Writing across the curriculum (WAC) programs had their genesis in grass-roots efforts to promote attention to writing in all disciplinary areas. At first based on generic faculty-development activities with little regard to systemic and institutional concerns, WAC programs are now more often engaged in assessment and research of writing,…

Specialists in the field of large-scale, high-stakes writing assessment have, over the last forty years alternately discussed the issue of maximizing either reliability or validity in test design. Factors complicating the debate--such as Messick's (1989) expanded definition of validity, and the ethical implications of testing--are explored. An…